Seeking70s

Started with 3 consecutive birdies yesterday (have never even come close to doing anything like that before - and all 3 putts were <5 feet)… and shot 79. Such is the life of a ~9 handicapper. Offseason work paid off a little too well in some spots - drove through 3 dogleg fairways into recovery situations. First round out had not adjusted club selection / aim for added distance. Lag putting remains a huge opportunity area. 3x 3-putts all with initial putts of 30-40 feet. Overall very excited with where my game sits.

Thank you everyone! This is all very helpful. I definitely do take my putter back too slowly so I’ll get to work on that, thank you @iacas. @ChetlovesMer love the “standard putt” idea. I think I’ll feel much more confident over lag putts with some sort of reference point.

After a quick 21-putt 9 holes in the Chicago cold yesterday, I found myself again frustrated with my poor distance control while putting. I’ve put in indoor putting practice time on improving my setup and stroke and have seen a definite improvement in my putting start lines. However, with limited space I have not been able to dedicate much time to distance control and that has always been a weakness. With partial wedges, many (myself included) have a system based on clubs & backswing lengths. With full swings I know approximate carry yardage buckets for all my clubs. And I have a golf watch to tell me exactly how far I am from the center of the green. Putting - I have rarely ever seen someone pace off a putt to know the exact distance to the hole. And the prevailing advice for putting (and short chips) is to rely on feel and practice to hone it in - curious whether: 1. Anyone uses or has tried a sort of system for this? 2. Why the prevailing wisdom here differs so much from other golf skills, where technique is a primary target for improvement rather than feel/skills. I was considering experimenting with a few different putting backswing checkpoints to have some benchmarks I can refer to. Obviously, you would need to adjust to green speeds and slopes day-to-day but if the tempo of your stroke remained relatively consistent I think it could work.

Was looking at my (unofficial) handicap tracking spreadsheet and realized that I am at an all-time low personal delta between my handicap and anti-handicap. I was pretty happy to see this as a focal point of my course strategy / target selection lately has been eliminating doubles or worse. I see lower overall score variability as evidence I’m actually doing that. For those unfamiliar with the idea of Anti-Handicap: Explaining the Anti-Handicap in TheGrint App - The Range @ TheGrint.com The Range @ TheGrint.com - Explaining the Anti-Handicap in TheGrint App - Was curious to learn from others what theirs look like and if they feel it speaks to a trend in their course strategy, target selection, etc. Handicap: 9.1 Anti-Handicap: 13.8

I actually like it for pro golf - it is one of the few ways you can strongly disincentivize pros from bombing/wailing on the golf ball. While that is an amazing skill, it is not the most entertaining to watch - longer approach shots are more enjoyable to me. For recreational golfers I tend to find it a bit too penal for strategic interest in most cases. OB is such a severe price to pay that it causes optimal targets off the tee to be somewhat wacky at times. External OB is a necessary evil - the course needs to end somewhere. Internal OB when necessary for safety is another necessary evil. Otherwise I tend to think it is the result of poor planning / routing / layout.

I was watching a Titleist YouTube video about shaping shots which featured Jordan Spieth and his thoughts on a “controlled fade.” In golf commentary you often hear the idea that fades are easier to control than draws. Is there any objective reason why this is the case? Or is it yet another example of a golf truism with little evidence? The curvature of the ball is dictated by swing path and face alignment. I am struggling to understand the real reason why it should be easier to keep that relationship in check in one orientation versus another.

I have attached a photo of the green and area in question from a Google Earth snapshot. The blue line represents the approximate position of the GUR stakes and ropes (quite close to the edge of the green). The rear of the GUR is not marked in any way so I am not really sure where it would "end." Essentially a 10+ yard perimeter of GUR stakes surround the entire creek which runs through many holes on this course (see 2nd screenshot). EDIT: The “7” should be an 8 in that 2nd screenshot. The creek is now a bit narrower than in the Google Earth pic due to the repairs and a dry summer - I marked my best estimate of where the hazard would be staked with the red line. White line is the line I saw my ball enter on - again no clue where it went to rest. I had trees obscuring some of my vision and the area it bounced into slopes towards the creek. I think it is a lost ball per what Bill and iacas have outlined in the rules. Appreciate the assistance as given the layout this is fairly likely to come up for myself or others in future league rounds.

Fair enough. I am certain that it was in one of the two, but not sure which, was too far away to see. It’s unfortunate that I am forced to take a penalty worse than either outcome, but that is how the rules go sometimes. Rub of the green and all that.

The water hazard precedes the do not enter signs, but there is no way to get near the water hazard without entering the “do not enter” area. The repairs were to the shoreline of a creek (which is the water hazard in question) and the entire area surrounding the creek on every hole is marked as DNE as they are trying to grow back the dead grass in those areas.

Similar to the above, but for bouncy pitch shots I have feel checkpoints going as low as 20 yards (1/4 swing feel 58*) - I find I can commit more confidently to my pitch shots that way. Chip shots that use the leading edge and roll more are more feel based like a putt.

Encountered an interesting situation and not a rules expert so looking for help - playing in my league last week I hit a shot that sliced to the right, offline, and entered a roped off area near the green. After recent repairs to the course, these areas are roped off with signs that instruct you not to enter (for environmental concerns) and to take a free drop. However, on this hole there is also a water hazard which is maybe 20 yards further right of the ropes. I did not see where my ball ultimately came to rest, only that it bounced into the roped off area - it may have gone into the water hazard or it may have come to rest in the free drop area. Do I have to take a penalty stroke, is this ruled a lost ball, do I get a free drop at the ropes, or is there some other answer here?

78 this past Sunday at a local municipal course, 7.1 differential. Best differential of the year! 9/14 fairways, 12/18 GIRs, 36 putts 😬 Extremely excited by how well I drove & struck the ball, even if it may have been a bit of positive variance. Not going to overreact to the bad chipping & putting day, but I will make sure I am keeping to the 65/20/15 ratio.

Nothing beats waking up early and getting to watch a few hours of golf before the work day, especially when it's the Old Course. Hopefully we get some conditions and some good drama on Sunday. Feels like a Justin Thomas kind of week to me, although he has thrown up a few duds including last week. Feel like his trajectory control and creativity should play well here.

For me, the worst is when I am over a shot, feel uncomfortable, know I should back off it, swing anyway, and then hit a horrible shot. Had one of these last weekend, hit a 4i so far off the toe I am surprised I made contact.

Thanks. I recall seeing a thread here about getting more on the balls of your feet here as well so I will seek those out and try some slow abbreviated swings working on those two things.

Thank you for the advice. I did notice the right elbow, I remember seeing a thread here about that so I will go seek that out. When you say balance, do you mean how far over heels or toes I am at address, how far forward my weight sways at the top, both, or something different?

I've been Playing Golf for: 15 years My current handicap index or average score is: 10.9 My typical ball flight is: Push-draw The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: Pull-hook & Big Push Currently receiving lessons through GOLFTEC, I have done their swing evaluation and 2 30-minute lessons. First lesson we worked on alignment (too open) and grip (too strong left hand / too weak right hand). Those were relatively easy to put into practice and improved the start line of my hooking ball flight. Second lesson we tried to work on clubface control. My instructor gave me a feel of the hands going left while keeping the clubface & right wrist post-impact. Had some personal stuff come up so didn't get to practice much in between these two lessons. Third lesson I regressed into some bad grip habits so currently that is my primary focus. Secondary piece is still that feel of hands left & maintaining face. For the life of me I cannot find a feel that gets the picture I want on video. Going to ask my instructor for some drills, but you can see from the face-on that my right hand heavily rotates post-impact. When that happens too early in the downswing I hit some really ugly pull-hooks. Videos:

I have broken 80, made a few eagles, and purchased & read LSW.

I think chipping/putting with hybrid can be a valuable part of an overall greenside arsenal. You’ll see PGA players do it at times, when the situation warrants it. Without seeing your technique, hard to know what might be causing that “sticking” issue. That issue in my experience is usually caused more by the leading edge digging. Do you have an exaggerated forward lean of the shaft at address?

Thanks for all the replies. So far it seems like the consensus is that the situation has to be pretty unusual to warrant a different decision than in standard stroke play, which seems intuitive enough.

Typically, when I golf, I am playing non-competitive rounds with friends or family, and focus on shooting as low a score as possible. Once a year, I have a competitive event with friends (mock Ryder Cup), where we play fourball, foursomes, and match play. There are some obvious situations where you make different strategic decisions than you would in a stroke play round (if your fourball partner is in for 5, no sense lagging a putt for 4, for example). I have a few hypotheticals below that are more marginal, curious how TST would approach these and hoping people might have others to think about. -Singles match opponent OB on a long par 4, standard play is driver but there is trouble both left and right -Alternate shot partner is a poor bunker player, opponents have a 20-footer for birdie. Flag is directly behind a bunker, safe target leaves 40 feet with a good shot -Risk reward drivable par 4 in fourball, general approach when one partner is a bomber and one is accurate

Hi All! I am a long time lurker of the forum who finally decided to register and start participating in golf discussion. I’m eager to improve, currently taking lessons at GOLFTEC, and have reduced my handicap from ~18 to 10.9 over the last 5 years in a self-taught manner. Broke 80 twice last season which was a big confidence boost. I am hoping to bring my 20-round rolling average differential down from ~14 to ~11 by the end of this season. I focus more on average differential than handicap as I prefer a flatter distribution of my scores, it allows me to enjoy golf much more. Bought and read LSW last season which was very helpful from a strategy perspective. Primarily working on technical improvement to full swings with my instructor, distance control on chips/pitches, and lag putting.